robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Orange Empire Railway Museum 9AM - 5PM

Then on June 20th and 21st is Pacific Electric (the Red Cars) weekend and on Sunday the 21st you reserve a spot for the Father's Day BBQ lunch Noon-2PM.

Go to http://www.OERM.org and check the Activities sidebar on the right for details and prices.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Interesting to know about. Might be worth a visit for a photo shoot. It is closer to me than Travel Town (Griffith Park, L.A.).

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Just by chance the museum was right next to Travel Town in the early 50s. Then in 1958 the zoo, travel town and the (then) Orange Empire Trolley Museum were all told they had to move because of freeway construction.
Travel Town and the Zoo went to their present locations.
The trolley museum moved out to Perris setting up on part of a potato farm they bought and shared the location and old RR right of way with the California Southern Railroad Museum. By 1975 the two merged and became the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Oh, cool, now I know more of the story. Though, how many locations have there been for the L.A. Zoo? I remember two. But the Zoo move I remember was during the late 1960's to early 1970's. I was only 4 y/o in 1958, too young to remember being at the Zoo or a move. It was while I was in primary school. They used (my) old Zoo for movie and TV shoots for many years.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I just checked, the Griffith Park Zoo was in one location 1912-1966 and was renamed the LA Zoo when it moved.
The 8 year difference in moving was probably due to the larger job moving the zoo. The zoo needed to build new enclosures and cages to move the animals while the Trolleys could be put on a flatbed, hauled out and set down on one length of rail in an empty field. The fact that the reason they were told they had to move turned out to be wrong also removed the urgency. The new freeway did not totaly cut them off like they were told. Just restricted the space to expand, put in parking etc. and changed the street pattern leading to them.

Shutterbug_11 Loc: Yucaipa, CA

Hi there! Thanks for the info about the upcoming events at the OERM in a few weeks! I'd like to try & make it to the car & motorcycle show on the 13th, but have to wait & see what my schedule is like. What are the "Pacific Electric [Red Cars]" ? Are they trains or cars? Love your "bear" photo on your profile page!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Back in the day the Los Angeles area had two major street car systems.
The Pacific Electric Railway (Red cars because of their company colors) ran long inter city routes from Santa Monica to Redlands and Mt Lowe to Huntington Beach. Over 1100 miles at the height of service, often on seperate right of ways like the railroads. They were standard railway gauge tracks and ran freight along with the streetcars (big street cars, some held 80-100 people)
The Los Angeles Electric Railway (Yellow cars) ran the local runs on the city streets of LA and a few towns like Huntington Park and South Gate that bordered LA. They ran on narrow gauge 3 1/2 foot tracks and were generally smaller cars and the tracks almost all ran right down the middle of the city streets.

Out at the OERM we have both types in the collection and of course trains. We run both types and trains for visitors to ride on weekends and holidays. Pacific Electric/Red Car Weekend is a once a year event where we feature only the "Red Cars" for the whole weekend. We even have a PE electric freight locomotive to pull a train on the main line when it is running. These things are old and rotate in and out of maintenance and refurbishment from time to time so are not always available to use.

Go to oerm.org and you can find out a lot more, including pictures and a calendar of events. In Nov we have Thomas the Tank Engine and his friend Percy at the museum pulling trains for two weekends. So if you have little ones in the family that is a good event to bring them to.

Shutterbug_11 Loc: Yucaipa, CA

Wow! Thanks for the history lesson about all the stuff that used to happen long ago. I'll go to the OERM website to find out a bit more info about this particular date. If this only happens once a year, then I want to make sure I can get some good photos! I'll pass this info on to another young man that I just met recently -- he's a "die-hard" train addict! We're also buddies on Facebook as well.

Oh my....just realized that by looking at the date on my computer, the 13th is this Saturday. Usually Saturday is my chore day, so maybe I can come out to the Perris event for a few hours. Are you going to be there too? Last time I went there a few months ago, the person at the entrance saw my Canon DSLR hanging around my neck & gave me a "photo pass" for the day. I was so excited to be considered "paparazzi" for a day! I still have it too -- for my scrapbook! :) Anyway, thanks for your reply & history lesson! Great to hear from you! Take care! :thumbup:

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Unless something comes up or my knee is acting up I plan to be there at least half the day. I hope to have my daughter with me. She gets home for the summer Friday. Her spring break we went to the Steam Punk Carnival at the museum and she went nuts, over 900 shots to my 200+. But she is into costume playing etc, and a good friend's family make and sell props and costumes for these type events. She borrowed stuff and paraded around in costume with her camera. A steampunk RR conductor with lace etc. (She and I are both members of the operations department.)

On that "photo pass" I'll bet it was for one of the restricted exhibits like the RR executive car that has a crew of collections people who guard it like a mama grizzly with a cub. Commercial photographers who are taking shots for possible sale need a special permit from the city of Perris that can be obtained in the book store. We do have more than one photography or graphic arts teachers who bring students out for shoots, esp special events.

On YouTube a search for OERM or Orange Empire Railway Museum will get an assortment of videos people have posted.